Simona Halep Suspended for a Positive Doping Test
When the news came out that Simona Halep announced at the US Open, and was being accused over a positive doping test, I thought she should be fined, or banned from the tour. This was, after all, a major and important win on the tour, but there was no way for her to prove any sort of wrongdoing, because she had not yet been drug tested. Her coach, Andreas Schlechter was not only going to support her in the press and on TV, but also would serve as her ambassador.
It really was a major win, because while the other top-three players – Serena Williams, Victoria Azarenka and Angelique Kerber – were all winning this year, Halep was playing her best tennis, and was putting herself in a position to become the highest seed in the history of the US Open. She was also playing the best tennis to date, but now all of this is now in question.
She was supposed to be suspended from the rest of the season, and could end up missing out on a whole tour, and possibly a major. I don’t know what she would have done if she had been facing the rest of the field, and it had turned out that she had a positive test.
After the whole thing was over, I did decide to be a little more open-minded about this. I had seen the reaction from tennis fans, and I knew something was going on, that she was somehow trying to use this on the public. I was not going to have an opinion until the dust settled, and the facts became known.
Simona Halep’s Doping Test
Halep is currently still serving a two-year suspension from competitive play due to a doping test. Her coach Andreas Schlechter, who has been her mentor since she was a little girl, says she was given a positive test for the banned substance meldonium, which is a treatment for myotonic dystrophy, or Duchenne muscular dystrophy that takes away the ability to use the muscles normally.
“She tested positive for meldonium, which is a treatment drug for Duchenne muscular dystrophy.”
The reason she was tested for meldonium was because her urine sample was found positive for the substance when it was tested by the world Anti-Doping Agency (Wada). Prior to this happening, she had